Curated playlist
Physiographic provinces
- SakhalinSakhalin is Russia's largest island, yet most Westerners have never heard of it. Three countries have claimed it.
- MadagascarMadagascar appears on a map drawn by Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154 under the name Gesira Malai, Arabic for Malay island. That is a strange label for a place off the southeastern coast of Africa. Today the Republic of Madagascar is the world's…
- Caucasus MountainsMount Elbrus is called Europe's highest peak, but that depends on where you draw the line.
- Blue Ridge MountainsThe Cherokee called them Sagonige Tsalegi, which means blue mountain ridge. The English name for the Blue Ridge Mountains carries the same idea. It is a strange label for a mountain range. Most mountains look green or gray or brown,…
- SaharaIn the Sahara, an adult and two children were buried hugging on a bed of flowers 5,300 years ago.
- Hindu KushIn 1842, the Hindu Kush became a graveyard for a retreating British column. About 16,000 soldiers and camp followers were massacred as they fell back through the range toward India. The first British invasion of Afghanistan ended in…
- AnatoliaMost Europeans carry DNA from farmers who left Anatolia about 9,000 years ago. Anatolia is the peninsula now in Turkey.
- Altai MountainsDenisova Cave in Siberia is the only known place where three human species lived.
- Carpathian MountainsThe Carpathian Mountains, a great arc of rock across Central and Southeast Europe, were rich in iron, gold and silver, especially in their western part. When the Roman emperor Trajan conquered Dacia, he brought back to Rome over 165 tons…
- PyreneesThe Pyrenees run for nearly 500 kilometres, from the Cantabrian Mountains in the west to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast. Their highest point is Aneto, at 3404 metres, in the Spanish province of Huesca. Along most of the main crest…
- AlpsIn 1991, a glacier on the Austrian-Italian border gave up a mummy nicknamed Ötzi. He died there roughly 5300 years ago.
- Gobi DesertThe Gobi Desert takes its name from the Mongolian word Gov', which simply means dryland. Mongolians once used it for every waterless stretch of their high plateau, whatever the ground looked like. The Chinese cousin of that word, gēbì, is…
- Atlas MountainsThe Atlas Mountains run for around 2500 kilometres through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. They form a long barrier in the Maghreb, standing between the Sahara and the waters of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Their name is…